7.27.2011

I have stuff that I have to do and stuff that I want to do and a very finite ability to do these things. As in, probably less ability/energy/capacity than "normal" people. And unpredictable capacities - I can't always predict if I'll have a migraine on a given day or be particularly tired and brain foggy or arthritic or whatever.

Unpredictability and finite capacity are two of the major things that make holding a "normal" daily set-schedule job difficult to impossible.

Unfortunately, self-motivation and organization to work on things at home is also a challenge for me.

I try to do a lot of the house cleaning and dishes. Tom manages doing laundry and meals and obtaining stuff for meals.

Then there is reading for fun and for research and self-improvement.

Then there is crafty stuff for fun.

And crafty stuff that I'd like to eventually turn into a business.

And writing, here and other places.

And somewhere in there I need enough energy to spend quality time with my husband and socialize in some way here and there and basic self-care like showering. Plus I usually have at least 1 medical appointment every week, often 2 or 3. And I need to exercise and meditate regularly (preferably every day) for my health.

But I never know when to start and what to start. And I have a huge problem with feeling guilty for doing "fun" stuff. There is a little voice in my head that says "if you are well enough to do x, you should be well enough to have a full-time 9-5 job, you awful malingering lazy-bones." I'm working on telling that voice what to go do with itself, but it's hard. And so I frequently find that I default to mindless internet surfing and find the day gone and very little accomplished either of the fun or the work.

There is also the little voice that says "you're wasting stuff!" when I start a project or am trying to start one.

In addition, I often find myself obsessively finding tutorials or books or how-tos about a given craft or activity and spend so much time collecting the stuff and wind up so overwhelmed with all of it that I do nothing. Sort of the equivalent of spending so much time gathering sources for a paper that you don't actually get to the writing of the paper (until 2 days before it's due, at which point you stop sleeping and write non-stop until 5am the day it's due).

How do you figure it out? What tricks do you have for self-motivating? Or convincing yourself that "waste" is a part of learning? How do you prioritize the must be done/want to do? And how to do you manage all that with unpredictable ability from day to day?

7.22.2011

We went to the Chicago Botanic Gardens at the end of May, but I only just now got around to downloading the photos from my camera.

It's really beautfiul. I was really interested in their Enabling Garden. It's designed to be accessible for a variety of people. There are lots of suggestions and examples of ways to make gardening easier (or possible) for people with a variety of conditions.

Probably of most use were the examples of vertical garden planters and the raised planting beds.

7.20.2011

This is how camp would have looked. Only hopefully the women would be wearing pants.

Sadly, it looks like I will probably not be teaching the adult archaeology day camp thingy. Apparently we priced it too steeply but can't really afford to cut things. Sigh.

Also, it's like eleventy-billion degrees here. With no AC except the crotchety-ass window unit in the bedroom. And I'm afraid to go get in the lake because there's all kinds of foul shit (literally) in there and I am slightly immune-compromised. Also, I'd have to walk through the heat and sun and junk. I damn near passed out catching a bus earlier.

I think I may take Oreo and go camp out in the bedroom with my Kindle and the AC.

7.16.2011

While this episode is probably most notable for a screencap that appears after the break, it was also set in an underground cavern system on an extremely cold planet.

Apparently the set designer must have been heavily invested in the spray texture industry, given that every "natural" surface is coated in the stuff. It's also used in other "ice planet" episodes, of which there seems to be quite a lot, now that I think about it. They may also have been anticipating the Lisa Frank1 craze of later years as all the surfaces are also pink and purple. Because, um, alien ice is purple? Or is this supposed to be rock surface? If it's ice, then WTF is up with this outfit?

7.10.2011

I'm still working on writing lecture material for the day-course archaeology thing I'm teaching later this month and then again in August.

I'm trying to find examples to illustrate various points. At the moment, I'm trying to come up with an artifact or other archaeological thing that was/is explained or mentioned in an ancient text, thus making it easier to identify. Pretty much, the idea is to show the back-and-forth nifty-ness and exchange of ideas possible in archaeology and history.

Been trying various Google searches. His Alien Holiness up there was the first image result for one of them. I'm about ready to give up. On everything. I will become a hermit. Hermits can have husbands and dogs and books and yarn, right?

7.01.2011

I have recently started trying to downsize the stuff I carry around regularly. I bought a new sling-bag that I love.

And a folding cane in the hopes that I might be able to fold it up and stick it in my bag now and then on good days.

Unfortunately, my current day planner is a smidge too big for my new bag. I seriously need this planner. I have a week across 2 pages section and a month across pages section that are absolutely vital for recording appointments, work schedule, migraines, and notes. The daily pages get notes about meds I take as needed so I can keep track of when I can take the next dose plus have an idea of my med usage over time.
I especially like having a year or 6 months worth of stuff in the planner, it makes it much easier to show patterns of symptoms or note when medication dose changes or whatever happened.

It also has all my primary doctor contact info (business cards), plain note pages, and a pocket for stowing loose paperwork.

It measures 7" x 8.5" x 1.5" - kinda big and heavy, as it's faux leather, zips shut, and is the six-ring binder style. The interior pages themselves are about 4" x 7" Finding a new smaller, lighter cover seems like an obvious choice, but I'm having trouble finding one that isn't over $20-40 (I'm cheap). I'm not sure if the binder rings from the one I have or another old one could be scavenged to make an new binder myself. If anyone has any handy links about that, do please let me know.

So, I've been exploring other options. DIY sounds fun, but I would prefer relatively little effort or lots of tracking down of supplies. Something that I can get soon would be really nice too.

I've considered a hipster PDA, but the lack of easy flipping back and forth and longer-term organization would be a big problem for me. It needs to be fairly sturdy too. And I'm not confident plain paper will work or that my printer can handle index cards.

I've also looked at the PocketMod - nifty planner folded from a single sheet of paper. I suppose I could print lots of them and bind them somehow.

I'd really like a super easy way to just print, fold in half, and staple a bunch of regular 8.5 x 11 paper, but haven't had much luck finding that sort of thing.

I have found some fill-in date (so I can start it when I want) planners that are adorable, but I'm not sure I want to make the leap. But they are seriously adorable, so I wanted to share.

Image via WikipediaIn between colds, UTIs, CFS-flare ups, revenge of the grumpy-ass thyroid, and migraines I've been trying to pull things together for the archaeology day-camp for adults course I'm team teaching this summer.

I found the last time I taught that working out a general outline for lectures and then going to look for pictures for PowerPoint (or whatever presentation software) is often really helpful in getting my own brain in gear for teaching. So, I tend to go type a few phrases in to Google Image Search and see what turns up. This is also immensely helpful in shutting up the little voice in my head screaming "how on Earth are you going to illustrate *that*?" which sends me into fetal-position procrastination. Because if I don't work on it at all, somehow that will make it less scary.

Seriously, brains are stupid sometimes.

Anywho, as is often the case with the wonder that is the internets, I inevitably find things that are interesting but not of immediate use. Like this link: